Dude, where's my B'Tran?

hornet6 · September 2014

I used to do the Doff mission in B-Tran in order to try and get a good Technician doff. Is that still available or has recent changes in exploration changed that? If so, is it possible to "doff" a "tech doff" anymore? How can I be "King of the Hill" without dozens of purple tech doffs filling the hallways of all the ships I have? I am too cheap to buy them off the Exchange?

anazonda · September 2014

Exploration was removed because it was (apparently) confusing and took up too much download (not joking... That's the reason we were given).

Look for the space cloud near the area where the clusters used to be for your Duty Officer assignment.

BTW, where have you been? They were removed months ago...

worffan101 · September 2014

Yeah, you can still get them. I have one of those OP blue Caitian techs on one of my chars, got it from the cluster missions.

nazelnag · September 2014

anazonda wrote: »

Exploration was removed because it was (apparently) confusing and took up too much download (not joking... That's the reason we were given).

AHahahh hahah hahah ahaha haha hah ha

kjwashington · September 2014

nazelnag wrote: »

AHahahh hahah hahah ahaha haha hah ha

If you think that's funny, another reason we were given was that people were getting lost in the clusters. :P

nazelnag · September 2014

kjwashington wrote: »

If you think that's funny, another reason we were given was that people were getting lost in the clusters. :P

ROlf Muahahah ahhahah .... ih ih ihh ehehehe .... ahahahah ... cof cof cof .... ih ih ih

starswordc · September 2014

kjwashington wrote: »

If you think that's funny, another reason we were given was that people were getting lost in the clusters. :P

And people wonder why we hate Geko these days. It's not just the unnecessary changes he keeps ordering, but also the Viewers Are Morons excuses he keeps giving.

Cluster randomly generated levels aren't up to quality standards? That's a decent reason to fix them so they are, not to remove them altogether. People get lost in them? Give me a frakking break.

nightken · September 2014

starswordc wrote: »

And people wonder why we hate Geko these days. It's not just the unnecessary changes he keeps ordering, but also the Viewers Are Morons excuses he keeps giving.

Cluster randomly generated levels aren't up to quality standards? That's a decent reason to fix them so they are, not to remove them altogether. People get lost in them? Give me a frakking break.

to be fair looking at this forum... I would say that there is some reason to believe that most of the fan base is lacking... still a poor reason though.

admiralcarter · September 2014

kjwashington wrote: »

If you think that's funny, another reason we were given was that people were getting lost in the clusters. :P

Some are still missing in there...

trek21 · September 2014

nightken wrote: »

to be fair looking at this forum... I would say that there is some reason to believe that most of the fan base is lacking... still a poor reason though.

Yeah, it's hardly all of the dev's fault - this forums resists pretty much any change (good or bad), and cry out at most everything, including the smaller stuff

We're not that self-entitled really lol

starswordc wrote: »

And people wonder why we hate Geko these days. It's not just the unnecessary changes he keeps ordering, but also the Viewers Are Morons excuses he keeps giving.

Cluster randomly generated levels aren't up to quality standards? That's a decent reason to fix them so they are, not to remove them altogether. People get lost in them? Give me a frakking break.

Plus 'getting lost'? As an experienced player, yes, it's silly, but a completely new player who hasn't played a lot of MMO's? That I can understand

Plus actually, removing them seems easier than reworking them - that way, new exploration or whatever can be started from the ground up to be awesome, rather than just plowed over the old stuff - a matter of quality overall. But that's just me, and hardly that (all) ViewersAreMorons (as is the cynical view that it appears they're talking to us that way)

^Frequents TVTropes as well

rattler2 · September 2014

Your B'Tran took an Arrow to the Knee.

starswordc · September 2014

trek21 wrote: »

Plus 'getting lost'? As an experienced player, yes, it's silly, but a completely new player who hasn't played a lot of MMO's? That I can understand

Bull. You can't get lost in them, there's nothing in there. Just hit the warp out button. They explain that in the tutorial, for Pete's sake.

trek21 · September 2014

starswordc wrote: »

Bull. You can't get lost in them, there's nothing in there. Just hit the warp out button. They explain that in the tutorial, for Pete's sake.

Not 'physically' lost, storywise lost - a lot of mostly nonsensical missions where they mostly have to fight races they've never heard of (exasperated if they aren't big ST fans), and otherwise not be sure how this ties into anything except as a distraction

Confusing for sure, from that point of view

rynohawk · September 2014

trek21 wrote: »

Plus actually, removing them seems easier than reworking them - that way, new exploration or whatever can be started from the ground up to be awesome, rather than just plowed over the old stuff - a matter of quality overall. But that's just me, and hardly that (all) ViewersAreMorons (as is the cynical view that it appears they're talking to us that way)

^Frequents TVTropes as well

That is assuming they plan to replace it with something more awesome anytime soon. Hopefully DR will pan out with some more exploration and less "kill them all and take there stuff."

The Vulcan in me says it would've been more logical to wait to remove it until you actually have some content to replace it with.

bobbydazlers · September 2014

ok so you can still get all chain missions for the doffs rewards and the wanderer, nomad and explorer accolades from the clusters but as far as I can tell there seems to be no way to get the dependable, vigilant and reliant B'Tran cluster accolades at the moment and that's a shame because I have started on getting them but have no way to complete them so it looks like there will forever be these uncompleted accolades clogging up my list.

I wish the devs would add a doff mission to complete these last 3 accolades.

alexvio1 · September 2014

anazonda wrote: »

took up too much download

This is a joke. In our days when many of us have high speed internet this is a joke. People with bad internet don't play in MMOs. I think all other official reasons of clusters removal were jokes too. And my game folder even doesn't became smaller after S9.5 patch.

bobbydazlers · September 2014

alexvio1 wrote: »

This is a joke. In our days when many of us have high speed internet this is a joke. People with bad internet don't play in MMOs. I think all other official reasons of clusters removal were jokes too. And my game folder even doesn't became smaller after S9.5 patch.

i think the reason they removed the cluster missions was to make room for all the extra content of DR, its not the size of your flolder that counts its whats on the server that changes.
you must have an area on your folder that holds temporary files, all the time these files are often used they will remain there but if the files are not used they will be deleted.
this is why if you suddenly do something you havent done in a long while or never before the game does a little patch on the fly to download the files you need but it keeps the size of your sto folder fairly constant.

anazonda · September 2014

alexvio1 wrote: »

This is a joke. In our days when many of us have high speed internet this is a joke. People with bad internet don't play in MMOs. I think all other official reasons of clusters removal were jokes too. And my game folder even doesn't became smaller after S9.5 patch.

I tend to agree... I can't even remember how it was to deal with speeds below 25 Mbps... Can't imagine how anyone can live with less.

baudl · September 2014

anazonda wrote: »

Exploration was removed because it was (apparently) confusing and took up too much download (not joking... That's the reason we were given).

well, the main reason still was that the quality of those missions was below substandard. If those missions were food, it would have been so bad that customers got sick from it. No chance of fixing it when the core principle behind it was flawed. Another reason why keeping those missions made no sense was the revamp of the crafting system. The old system essentialy needed the clusters to grind for crafting mats. The new one doesn't, so that need also went away. Yet another design reason would be, that those "pockets" of space were in the way for new sectors that would be added in the future. Cryptic does not want to be associated with that kind of PVE missions anymore, so they removed it. Other developers have done similar things before.
They also most certainly had meta data that indicated that not many people actually did those missions anymore.

That were the main reasons why they removed it...while the other reasons are also true, it is unfair not mention the other more important reasons.
Don't try to destort the facts, it is a pretty long list why they got removed.

my personal view is, that it wasn't "exploration" in the first place...they called it exploration, but it simply was bad mission design that had a random factor.
The idea to tie in the foundry seems more appropriate to be called "exploration", if it is done right.
An example: Foundry seasons! Each quarter year or so, they release specific information about a "cluster" (like species that live in it, what kind of conflicts exist there, ...) which foundry authors can use as a base for their own story. Once the "season" is over the best foundry missions gets a price.

daan2006 · September 2014

i have this bookmarked just for this occasion

adjudicatorhawk wrote: »

That's really not why. I've seen this conspiratorial thought creep up in just about every post on materials. They're removed because they drastically lower the quality of the game for new players who encounter them without knowing "Oh, those missions are 'special'" - and because they drastically increase the game's install size for new players, which prevents hundreds of players each month from even trying out the game in the first place.

btw what the new download size now?!?!?!?

notapwefan · September 2014

[QUOTE=somtaawkhar;19253021n fact, America is considered to have some of the worst internet speed in the world, except for some countries like Australia.

[/QUOTE]

and with net neutrality TRIBBLE it will go even worse

sunfrancks · September 2014

Apparently, and I cannot remember where Geko said this, we can go explore the delta quadrant once DR goes live!

You know, all those planets that were already discovered by Voyager, that are in no way unexplored....

mustrumridcully0 · September 2014

sunfrancks wrote: »

Apparently, and I cannot remember where Geko said this, we can go explore the delta quadrant once DR goes live!

You know, all those planets that were already discovered by Voyager, that are in no way unexplored....

We've been on Earth for a very long time, and there are still unexplored regions. Voyager barely glimpsed these worlds. One matte painting and a few interiors don't make an explored world.

Particularly not if the world has changed in the past decades.

Dude, where's my B'Tran?

Comments

When I think about everything we've been through together,

maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,

and if that journey takes a little longer,

so we can do something we all believe in,

I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.

When I think about everything we've been through together,

maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,

and if that journey takes a little longer,

so we can do something we all believe in,

I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.